The irony of Newman being given this rare honor just now lies in the fact that the unity of the Church is threatened by recrudescent ultramontanism: not the old, 19th-century reactionary model, but a new hybrid combining Catholic progressivism in the realm of ideas with liberal authoritarianism in Church governance.

Independence, new faces and the weight of discernment can be overwhelming. But through prayer, adoration and reception of the Eucharist, I’ve learned to trust that I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be.

In his first exhortation, “Dilexi Te” (“I Have Loved You”), Pope Leo XIV wrote movingly of Christ’s love for the poor and of our calling as Catholics also to love and serve the poor. His exhortation hit home personally.

Creating Christians who are whole human beings is all of our jobs. But it’s yours first.

I won’t miss those skeletons on the neighborhood lawns. But I treasure remembering how close we are to our beloved, living and dead.

This year, however, the annual November meeting in Baltimore has an opportunity to take a public stand on an issue that is roiling the neighborhoods and parishes of many American communities — the current administration’s aggressive campaign to seize and deport undocumented immigrants.

Antisemitism is a malignancy in society. Throughout modern political history, rising antisemitism has been an unmistakable marker of cultural decay.

Purgatory is indeed a state that exists apart from the linear time we experience in our lives on earth, and therefore we cannot truly speak about how long a soul spends in purgatory according to a literal measure of days, months or years.

There is no absolute certainty in discerning a vocational call. If we have certainty, we wouldn’t keep pursuing the mystery of God present in the silence and stillness. That is where the will of God is found.

All Saints is a churchwide holy day of obligation and normally celebrated on Nov. 1. If the first day of November falls on a Saturday or Monday, at least in the United States, the obligation to attend Mass is abrogated. All Souls’ Day takes place on Nov. 2, unless it falls on a Sunday, then the celebration is held Nov. 3.